


Brimstone in my Garden

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: An A.Z. Kimrean Story [2]
Category: This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us - Edgar Cantero
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Complicated Relationships, Friendship/Love, Love Confessions, Multi, Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Canon, V-shaped polyamory, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, emotions are very scary for adrian but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 20:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20588279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Ayzee calls Danny on their way out of town.





	Brimstone in my Garden

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn’t the next piece I was expecting to write for this fandom but y’know what when inspiration throws you a bone gotta be ready to catch it. 
> 
> Title from _Little Pistol_ by Mother Mother.

“Where have you two been?”

It was the first thing Danny said when he picked up the phone. Despite the misplaced anger in his tone (or perhaps, even, because of it), a pair of nearly-nonexistent lips curled up into a humourless grin. 

“You’ve been waiting by your phone,” Adrian commented nonchalantly.

On the other end of the line, an aggravated rustling noise suggested that Danny was putting something (paperwork, perhaps?) down on a table and pressing his phone more fervently to his ear. “Don’t give me that shit,” he hissed. “Where are you, Ayzee? Everyone’s been going crazy trying to find you. The whole force—“

“Awwh, he really misses us!” Zooey interrupted happily.

Kimrean leaned tiredly against the payphone they were using. Their left hand gripped the phone loosely, while the right hung at their side, clutching a sandwich with a bite taken out of it wrapped precariously in plastic wrap. 

“You disappeared!” Danny burst out with. 

“What’s a femme fatale without a little mystery?” Zooey replied. The sandwich, wrapping and all, was shoved unceremoniously right into her mouth. 

Danny sounded like he was frowning. “What?”

“Ignore her,” Adrian said. His voice was muffled by the sandwich. He removed it again. “I wanted to tell you to stop looking for us.

_ “What?” _

“It isn’t worth the resources that the force is spending. We don’t want to be found.” They switched hands on the phone receiver, and their left hand busied itself with stripping the sandwich of its dastardly cover. “We  _ won’t  _ be found, Danny. Stop looking for us.”

“Adrian, this isn’t fair and you know it.” Desperation replaced anger instantaneously, and Zooey paused momentarily in her mission to get to her sandwich to bite her lip in consternation. Ultimately, the sandwich (and Adrian’s stubborn handle on the situation) won out, and she went back to it with only a little bit of guilt swarming in the back of their mind. 

Adrian blew out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. Danny scoffed. 

“No, you’re not.”

Zooey  _ did  _ interrupt, then, with the sandwich nearly free from its prison. “He is, actually,” she told him. “I am, too, but I think he might actually be more sorry than I am. It’s really weird. I think this is the first time he’s been more torn up about something than I have.” 

Danny was silent for a long moment, a moment which was not only awkward, but also tinged with triumph for Zooey, who finally excavated her sandwich and took an oversized bite of it in her excitement to dig in and finally finish her lunch. Not even Adrian’s obvious annoyance could distract her from the lettuce-mayonnaise-roast beef concoction now mashing around in their mouth. 

Danny: Why are you sorry?

Even though he didn’t specify, the question was obviously directed at Adrian. 

Adrian:  _ (hurriedly swallowing Zooey’s half-chewed bite)  _ You’re looking for us because you’re emotionally attached to Zooey… and to me.  _ (beat)  _ I’m sorry for causing you pain. It’s unavoidable in the current state of affairs, but it doesn’t make it excusable. 

Zooey: You’re getting better at this, Ade! I’m proud of you. 

Danny and Adrian: Zooey—

Zooey: Yeah, yeah, okay. 

Adrian held the phone more tightly against his ear. “For what it’s worth, Danny, we—“ He choked on the words. The chunk of sandwich that had slid its way down Kimrean’s gullet sat bluntly in their stomach, a solid rock against the churning tide of acid around it. “We—“ He choked again helplessly. 

Maybe it was because he’d never said it to Danny before, not with his own voice and his own intent behind it. Maybe it was because he’d never said it out loud before to _anyone_ and meant it the way he did now. Maybe it was because he could hear Danny breathing heavily into the phone and feel the seconds ticking away for it. Whatever the reason, Adrian couldn’t fight the sudden mental block he was facing, and he struggled to catch himself again. If he could just regain some footing, he could try to get it out. It was important that he get it out! Danny deserved this much from them. He deserved this much from _him_. 

Danny was probably getting impatient. Was his breathing getting louder? Adrian focused on the breathing, measuring the seconds between inhalations and exhalations that he could just barely make out.  _ One. Two. Three. Four.  _

“We love you,” Zooey said carefully into the receiver, finally coming to Adrian’s rescue and finishing the sentence for him. She kept her voice at the pitch and tone Adrian normally spoke with; the phone dug into their right palm so hard it was likely to leave yet-another bruise. 

Kimrean heard the sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line and closed their eyes.  _ One. Two. Three. Four.  _ “We’ll call you again when we have the time.”

_ One. Two. Three.  _ “Adrian, wait, you can’t just—“

“Bye, Danny!” Zooey cut in cheerfully, back in her own octave. “Love you!” 

Before either Adrian or Danny could attempt to get another word in edgewise, Zooey used the knuckles of their sandwich-holding left hand to punch the hook of the phone and subsequently end the call. The dial tone rang in Adrian’s ear, buzzing like a swarm of mechanically-inclined bees. 

Slowly, he hung the receiver back on the hook. “That could have gone better,” he commented through the lump in their throat. Zooey immediately filled their mouth with sandwich again. 

“I still think we should visit him,” she said with their mouth full, ignoring the nervous glance a woman across the way threw them as she hurried down the otherwise-quiet street. “He misses us.” 

Adrian shook their head. “It’s too dangerous,” he replied quietly, forcing Zooey to swallow again when the spit-soaked wad of food became too much for him. His tone left no room for argument, but that had never stopped Zooey before. “We shouldn’t have even stopped to call him from here.”

“He loves us,” Zooey didn’t say, but her entire being screamed it anyways. She couldn’t help it; she was borne of feelings, so she wore her emotions on her sleeve. It had always been who she was, and it always would be. 

“We love him,” Adrian didn’t reply, but his corner of their shared mind swept it into a corner and then tied a neat little bow around it when it tried to wiggle away. If having an  _ emotion  _ didn’t look like such an ugly thing, then maybe it wouldn’t make him  _ feel  _ so many things he was unused to  _ feeling.  _

“We need to keep moving,” Kimrean said aloud. The street was empty, now, save for a pair of pigeons atop a street sign. They peered down at the strange, lanky human as it made its way away from the shiny box. All the pigeons really cared about was the  _ sandwich  _ (bread! glorious bread!) clutched in one of the human’s hands. 

Kimrean shouldered their belongings carefully, a flash of pain registering over their pale features before their face blanked itself out once more. They glanced left, then right, and then ambled slowly down the street in the opposite direction of the pigeons and their street sign. 

**Author's Note:**

> It was Adrian’s idea to call him in the first place. 
> 
> Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans.


End file.
